Unwrap Progress

Elite Character model

This is the character progress so far, I just need to unwrap the character and then texture it in mudbox .

Mindmap (Re-upload)

Smoke Launcher and Wrist Rocket

Evaluation

Evaluation

For this assignment I was tasked with working in a group to create the pre-production for a game
idea and level. 

The first thing we did after forming our team was to create a mind map to figure out our game
overview. It didn't take long before we decided on a sci-fi theme and later the idea of the game being a
first person shooter. The game overview itself took a little longer to breakdown and layout what it
would be about and what the game could contain in terms of characters and abilities. We then divided
the character, weapons and environments between us so we could each make a specific moodboard
for that area, I was given the enemy characters. I had a basic outline of what type of enemy character
design that we wanted, a basic grunt, a elite specialist and a large character to act as the tank. As far
as i can remember the teams mood boards were completed on time, i'm not completely sure though. 

Next we moved onto the concept stage of the assignment, following the same steps for the
moodboard, we divided the concept art into sections and spread that out to the team. I know my
drawing skills are not great but i was given the elite enemy to design and i wanted to put as much
effort into it as possible. I started by looking at my moodboard and seeing what parts I could take
and piece together into a character design. I designed each part of the character individually, multiple
versions of arms, heads and bodys so I could piece together what I wanted. An example of this would
be if i wanted a human character with a robot arm i would just pick human parts and a robot arm
design that i drew. During this I also created the Gnatt chart for our team to use as a reference, I don't
think anyone did to be honest but it was there from the start. 

This is when we started to fall a little behind with some of the work, the GDD was progressing as Luke
started writing a large portion of it and me and Aaron added some ability information like example of
other Time dilation abilities in games. Will was tasked with creating concept art for the raiders den and
the weapons, obviously if we had known that we would end dropping the raiders den then Will would
have been able to focus solely on the weapon design. Connor had to design the level map for the
space yacht and the grunt character, he had a very clear idea of what he wanted the grunt to look like
and after the team saw the first concept art for it we was able to create the photoshop version. I also
started my final photoshop design for the elite character and was looking at different colour schemes
to use. Aaron had a few slip ups with the concept art for the heavy character due to alterations with
the first design and the first photoshop design by him needing to be changed a bit with more detail
added. 

Our team meetings were interesting as we bounced different ideas around but the problem was we
never stopped to discuss any in much detail. This led to some people thinking that things were not
discussed or not said. 

Me and Will talked about a major rework of the abilities listed on the GDD and i believe that our
conversation definitely improved the game. I didn't personally write these abilities down, that was
Will but i did have involvement with most aspects of the game design. Connor had also finished the
level map for the first level on photoshop and had started to make the block out of the level. 

Around this stage of the assignment I was feeling confident in our game idea and how the work was
progressing, then we had the first presentation. At first I thought the presentation went well but the
feedback was pretty bad, we had too much text and the idea was too complicated and not achieved
in the time frame. We followed the feedback and made the changes that we needed, such as
removing the raiders den as a whole. 

By the time of the next presentation we thought that we had everything correct but the idea was not
presented correctly and we needed to rework how we sell the idea in our presentation. I started to
work on some additional concept art for the main characters abilities and then worked on the
photoshop version for presentation purposes. Our final presentation went really well, Luke made us all
cue cards that he numbered to match the slides on screen, This allowed all of us to prepare what we
needed to say and reduce our talking time to a manager level. In all three presentations I had to talk
about the enemy characters, something I was one with as I have had the most involved with the
enemy characters outside of their backstory that Luke created in the GDD. 

We had to create an interesting way to present the idea during the presentation so we originally
decided upon a police bag containing an IPad with the background for the game and mission briefing
on it. This idea fell through so we decided to create an evidence box and make it look as sci-fi as
possible. To be honest, my involvement with the creation of the box was not much outside of buying
some supplies and feedback during the creation process. 

When it comes to my team i feel that some people definitely did more work than others and that
statement also extends to myself, looking back i could have had more involvement with physically
writing the GDD and High pitch. I could have also made more 3D models near the end of the
assignment as i didn't have a lot to do outside of the photoshop version of grenades and missile
designs. The communication in our team was constant but not very constructive and I think that it
was down to not having a clear focus and the constant changing nature of our idea. 

Luke defiantly did the most of the written work, and some additional items for the presentation of the
high pitch and the idea itself. Despite some times where I was frustrated and irritated by comments
by him, I didn't think that he was a bad team leader and he stepped in to fill holes that the rest of us
forgot to do. I think the one big issue was him doing most of the written work without asking anyone
else to do a section in the High Pitch of maybe asking one of us to make the presentation. As a team
leader you need to give people the work to do and not wait for someone to offer to do a section and
then get frustrated when you have done more then you feel you should have. 

Connor didn't really do any of the written work as far as i can remember but he did create a character
and had the big task of creating the level map and the block out for the level. I feel that the block out
took a lot longer to finish then it probably should but in the end it was. I think he should have offered
to do some more written work but so could most of us. 

Will bounced around to different areas like concept art or the weapons and created the high pitch box
for the presentation. The problem was the time that things were completed, such as the concept art
for the weapons. It took awhile for the final designs to be finished. He managed to get our sci-fi box to
look really good in a very short amount of time which was impressive, i think the work he did was good
just slow in areas that could have been done quicker by other people. 

Aaron did the least out of everyone as he had help with his character and did one section of the GDD,
i know that he also created a model sheet for another NPC character and he made the cool fake drug
bags for the high pitch. I feel that he could have maybe stepped in to finish some sections of the GDD
or maybe created some more concept art for the game. But he definitely was engaged in the group
meetings and getting involved in the discussion of game ideas which is important. Another issue was
not being in for one of the presentations, i don't claim to know the reason why but if it was by choice
then I would be disappointed because we need to support the team in every aspect of the assignment,
especially during a group presentation. He did well in the final presentation so it makes him not being
there before not as bad. 

In conclusion, I feel that we all did a good job on this assignment, there were issues that looking back
on should have been tackled and sorted but not much can be done now. I can reflect on what I did
and what I could have done, I hope to carry that information forward into the next part of the
assignment and any beyond that. 

Quick Coloured designs for my Concept Art

Chair Model

 

Concept Art

Concept Art

Rocket - Concept Art

Changes to the GDD - Character abilities activation

As a team we went through each of the character abilities and changed how they will be displayed on
screen to the player. This is just a some of the changes that have been made to the abilities that we
have listed on the games design document. We also have some more abilities to add but they wont
need to be altered like i have done here.

Original Text Before my Edit - Strobe Lighting

The strobe lighting ability when used stuns your enemies for a short period of time to use this ability
press either the assigned key on the keyboard of press the right thumbstick, than whilst holding
down the right thumbstick, bringing up the combat powers wheel, twist the right thumbstick
anticlockwise or clockwise till the User Interface is over the Strobe Lighting icon. Once selected,
release the right thumbstick and hit either the Left Mouse Button or on console the left bumper stick. 

New Text - Strobe Lighting

The strobe lighting ability when used stuns your enemies for a short period of time to use this ability
press either V on the keyboard or ******* on the controller. This will activate the armour utilities that
the player selected for that mission.   

Original Text Before my Edit - Smoke Screen

To select to deploy the smoke press down on the thumbstick if using console to bring up the combat
wheel, and scroll the thubstike either anticlockwise or clockwise till the selector is over the smoke
screen power icon. Once the thubstike is released, then hit the left bumper stick to activate the power. 

New Text - Smoke Screen

Similar to the Strobe lighting, V needs to be pressed on keyboard and ***** on the controller to
activate the smoke screen if the player has this variation equipped.

Original Text Before my Edit - Time Dilation

Time Dilation is an effect the player character can use to slow down time in combat to gain an
advantage. To access the ability the player will have to bring up the combat power wheel, the same
as the Strobe Lighting ability.

New Text - Time Dilation

Time Dilation is an effect the player character can use to slow down time in combat to gain an
advantage. This ability is listed in a different section to the armour utilities so it requires a different
keyboard and controller input to be used. This is Q on the keyboard and ***** on the controller. 

 Original Text Before my Edit - Wrist Rocket

Like time dilation and smoke screen - the wrist rocket is an ability that is activated through the use of
either the tool bar or bringing up the power wheel (on consoles). And once it is selected as the active
power it is activated by the left bumper (like a grenade on Halo or power in Destiny). 

New Text - Wrist Rocket

Like the other armour utilities and this one is activated using V on the keyboard and **** on the
controller, after it has been activated it will automatically launch a rocket at the target on screen. 

Finished Character Design - Alternate colour designs

Photoshop - Elite Design - No Colour

Character Abilities

This section of work is going to be used in the High pitch document, the objective of it is to be a much shorter in game use for some of the characters abilities. In the GDD we went into a lot of detail about the ability in terms of how it would function as a game mechanic but the high pitch is more of a mission brief and the information on the abilities needs to reflect that.

Strobe Lighting is a piece of equipment on the Android Hunter Killer head that is activated in a combat scenario to unleash a non-lethal stun to enemy combatants, blinding them. Advantages of this is the ability to secure a better position on the battlefield or to remove a blinded target. 

The Android Hunter Killer will deploy a limited supply of smoke pellets in a heated firefight, this will obscure their view for a limited time. After deployment it is suggested that the drone returns to a safe area before the smoke clears, because the supply is limited awareness of supply is recommended. 

One of the more advanced and experimental tech available to the drone is the ability to enhance its movement and energy core to the point where enemy combatants will slow and seem to freeze in place, this is for a limited time only due to the amount of power needed to activate it. This means that hostiles will be easier to terminate for a short period of time, it's recharge time is also substantial so awareness is key to the utility of this equipment. This ability has been given the keyword of ‘Time Dilation’. 

Games Design Document - Time Dilation

Time Dilation 

Time Dilation is an effect the player character can use to slow down time in combat to gain an
advantage. To access the ability the player will have to bring up the combat power wheel, the same
as the Strobe Lighting ability. 

After the ability is selected the enemies will freeze where they are but the player will be able to move
and shoot normally. This will give the player time to re-position themselves and/or remove some of
the enemies. The cool down on this ability will be 30 seconds, the reason for this is because how
powerful this can be and the potential for it to be abused in game. It's effect in game lasts 5 seconds
but can be upgraded to increase the duration.  Another upgrade can be a damage boost or an instant
reload/magazine fill when you activate the ability. 

When active the screen will change to a blue tint and the enemies will be highlighted, this shows the
player that the ability is active and adds depth to the gameplay in combat. There is no range on the
ability so that's why the recharge is so long. 

This ability has the potential to be a huge factor in the game, the options that open in a combat
scenario from this ability are extensive. If used correctly it will allow the player to remove enemies of
their choice before they get to return fire, 

Super Hot 

Source for the image used - 27/01/20 - https://www.gamecrate.com/superhot-coming-xbox-one-next-week/13461

Super Hot is a first person shooter that makes use of a slowed time mechanic similar to a bullet time
effect found in other games. The game will slow down when the player is not moving, this allows the
player to analyse the situation and respond in an appropriate way. The whole game premise is based
on this one mechanic, the use of time trials and different weapons helps to make the game interesting
and engaging for the player. I don't think we will use the bullet time effect in this way but the idea of it
being based off of the players movement could be interesting to try and implement. Because there is
no specific button that is pressed to activate the ability it can make the game a challenge to play and
get used to, obviously when it comes to game design, we will need to give it a specific button or
scenario to trigger the effect. They also make use of an explosion effect on the enemy characters
when they are hit so that makes the bullet time look much cooler. 

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain 

Source for the image used - 27/01/20 - https://www.gematsu.com/2014/06/metal-gear-solid-v-phantom-pain-gameplay-sneak-peek

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has a bullet time effect that is activated when the player is
discovered by the enemy, it can also be activated by using a drug in the game. This allows the player
to analyse what is happening and make a decision on what to do. It works well in this game because
stealth is a viable option for most of the missions, I don't think the same parameters apply for our
game so implementing something that triggers on detection will work effectively. They allow the
player to activate this ability if you use a certain in game item, this can't change how you approach a
situation knowing you have the advantage of slowing time and taking out more targets effectively. 

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Source of the image used - 27/01/20 - https://xguni.blogspot.com/2011/08/call-of-duty-4-modern-warfare-cod4mw.html

Call of Duty is a first person shooter game series, they sometimes make use of a bullet time effect
during specific scenes or events in game. In Modern Warfare a bullet time is triggered when the
player breaches a room and this allows the player to pick their targets in slow motion. It works really
well when paired with the breach as it's a very intense situation and being able to slow the game
down and kill a room full of people in slow motion is very cool.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Source of image used - 27/01/20 - https://attackofthefanboy.com/guides/rdr2-how-to-target-multiple-enemies-with-dead-eye/

Red Dead Redemption 2 is an action adventure game that is in the third person. The ability that I
want to talk about is called "Dead Eye’, this allows the player to slow down time during the game to
target enemies with increased accuracy. It's very simple to use and helps to even a combat encounter
with multiple opponents very quickly. During the campaign the duration and recharge does increase
and you can do the same thing with certain food items found within the game world. When activated
the screen with turn a brown/yellow colour and that starts your timer to select the targets and take the
shot. Having an in game effect like this helps the player to separate the ability from the basic
gameplay and it makes the game more detailed. 

Sniper Elite 4 

Source of images used - 29/01/20 - http://www.thexboxhub.com/sniper-elite-4-deathstorm-part-1-expansion-available-download-now/

In the Sniper Elite games the objective to take out your targets from far away, to reward the player for
hitting a critical spot on an enemy, the game will slow down and track the bullet as it flies toward the
target and kills them. This can act as a mini reward system for the player, it is also one of the key
features that separates this game from other similar ones. 

Concept Art for Character

Concept Art - Leg Design one